The Kraken

The Kraken Ghost is our eighth Black Box Edition Ghost. Black Box editions are Ghosts made in collaboration with a maker, artisan or crafts person to produce a limited numbered edition. Black Box Ghosts are generally (but not always) made from a different material to our everyday Ghosts. Their limited status has already led to them becoming highly sought after and much coveted Ghosts, prized amongst collectors.

The Kraken project has been ongoing for over six months, and has resulted in an edition of 55 hand drawn phantom style ghosts illustrated in the style of early Victorian engravings and etchings. Our fellow Ghost Merchant and illustrator Ms Sophie Keen has worked slowly to build the edition over the year, and has created 55 unique hand drawn Ghosts. They are coloured in shades of bone white, some slightly yellow others more chalky. The Kraken illustrations are executed in fine black permanent ink. Every Kraken illustration is unique, some show galleons being pulled beneath stormy seas, others with the Kraken draped over the head of the Ghost, the eyes inky black. Just one shows a mighty whale being assailed by the Kraken. Each Ghost in the edition is numbered and for the first time within a batch there is the opportunity to choose the Ghost you would like.

In mari multa latent : “In the ocean many things are hidden.” There is still much we don't know about what lurks in the depths of our oceans, for centuries humans have simply taken to guessing what could be swimming in the deep. Europeans, for instance, assumed for a long while that every land being had a counterpart in the sea, hence sea horses and sea cows and even the sea monks and sea bishops, the aquatic representatives of the human race.

The Kraken is perhaps the largest monster ever imagined by mankind. In Nordic folklore, it was said to haunt the seas from Norway through Iceland and all the way to Greenland. The Kraken had a fearsome reputation for harassing ships and many reports (including official naval ones) said it would attack vessels with its strong arms. If this strategy failed, the beast would start swimming in circles around the ship, creating a fierce maelstrom to drag the vessel down.

Perhaps the most detailed description of the kraken comes from the Danish historian Erik Pontoppidan in his Natural History of Norway from 1755. He testifies that the beast is “round, flat, and full of arms, or branches,” and is “the largest and most surprising of all the animal creation.” He recounts tales of various fishermen “who unanimously affirm, and without the least variation in their accounts,” that “if you row out several miles into the Northern Seas in the summer, you’re in serious danger of falling victim to the Kraken.”

Legends say that the Kraken could devour a ship’s entire crew at once indeed the mysterious disappearance of countless ships in the Northern waters and the lives of many poor sailors lost at sea over the last millennia have been attributed to the legendary Kraken. There is good reason to believe that these legends are true…at least in part and our Ghost celebrates the myth and is dedicated to our forefathers and the brave voyagers who set sail into the unknown.

Edition of 55 - 35 online and 20 in the shop. Each unique

Release date : 14/8/20